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It was a pseudo-revival of mid-century folk music. It didn’t last because much of it didn’t have genuine proletarian roots like real folk music. It mimicked the aesthetic and sounds of folk music but none of the content. It never will when it’s just wealthy urbanites cosplaying as poor country bumpkins.
Folk music and related genres (like soul and country and blues) have all suffered for the same reason. Their class character is fake and purely aesthetic today. At least, for the super mainstream bands that make it on the Starbucks Spotify playlist.
There was a megathread a while back about Woody Guthrie. His music lasted because it captured a genuine aspect of working class America in a way that stomp clap hey never can. This Land Is Your Land was a political song. We don’t do that enough anymore, in the name of mass appeal and profit and merchandising. Even Bill Withers, who was merely center-left as far as I know, made music that mattered with lyrics opposing racism and war.
This pattern occurs with leftist/populist expression all the time. It’s heard by many for what it is, but for others it’s merely a catchy tune or a nice painting. I’ve mentioned the Surrealist art movement a few times here, but that’s another example. Salvador Dalí is ostensibly the face of the movement in the average person’s mind, but the Surrealists and he didn’t get along; he ultimately rejected their political message, believing that he could drop the political baggage and just focus on the abstract aesthetics of the movement. While I wouldn’t say his work was necessarily bad (he still applied his paranoiac critical method inspired by Freud) it didn’t have the same significance as Surrealists imo.
Dalí only dropped the leftist politics. He was at least a fascist sympathiser and painted hitler a couple of times. The whole ‘apolitical’ thing was on a spectrum of politically unaware liberalism to cryptofascism to overt fascism in denial.
Yeah well that goes without saying. Apoliticism is fascism, everyone knows that.
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Damn all of history really is the history of class struggle or something like that
I used to/still do listen to a lot of folk and folk punk, and people would always be “oh you would like this band!” and it was always this, to quote Futurama, “Vaguely folkish alterna-rock”. I never wanted to be mean and be like “look just because there’s a banjo doesn’t mean I would like it”. but it was always really frustrating.
You would like Bloodywood. They’re an Indian folk metal band that started out doing metal covers of pop and bollywood songs, but now they’re making original music and it’s lefty AF. Their most popular song is called Gaddar, which means Traitor, and it’s about politicians who use religion to stoke hate.
Bloodywood Not a huge fan but I know some people who might like it so I’m going to pass it on.
It was good, I just wont find myself listening to it.
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Also one of their tours was called Raj Against The Machine and that’s brilliant
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Become the generation that breaks the camel’s back!
Yes, Mumford & Sons does not a This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb make, or whatever
AHHHHH A WILD THIS BIKE REFERENCE!
I totally forgot about them til scrolling yhrough this post. Mouseteeth is such a banger
it’s kind of a good sign that booj have to pretend to be proles to seem cool, even if in the process they entirely hollow out genres and render them fake.
spoiler
it means they're scared
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It mimicked the aesthetic and sounds of folk music but none of the content.
The whole hipster subculture was a grotesque imitation of working class americana, is it a coincidence that it emerged shortly after the subprime mortgage crisis? no it isn’t, shopping from goodwill became popular out of necessity and then the aesthetics of thrifting emerged as a response because rich people felt alienated from the moment (the moment being the 2008 financial crisis). the saddest thing are fascists today trying to co-opt hipster aesthetics, a coarse imitation of an imitation that only vaguely retains its working class signifiers. a trend so passé that even having hipsters as the butt of the joke feels completely out-of-touch.
Good post
this is a good insight! Thanksthe saddest thing are fascists today trying to co-opt hipster aesthetics,
Like Matt Walsh and that Vice guy
based and material analysis pilled
Death to America
What’s your opinion on folk metal?
A class analysis of the broader metal genre would be really interesting and I don’t think I know enough to answer. I have some hypotheses and hot takes but nothing concrete.
I think metal in general evokes power and importance. Some have interpreted this to mean metal serves to reinforce masculine ideology and hetero norms, which may be true for certain artists. In recent decades though, metal fans have a more even gender split. One could make a contrary argument that metal serves to empower a powerless individual, whether they feel that way due to their class or personal issues like bullying or abuse.
Metal commonly includes themes of fantasy. Is this a form of escapism for an audience that doesn’t want to cope with the material world? Some subgenres focus quite heavily on worldbuilding. I notice that frequently these worlds involve overt evils to fight or evade… is that a reaction to the obscure and abstract exploitation of capitalism? Sometimes these worlds are plainly reminiscent of past times, precapitalist societies with simple social relations. Perhaps these would be the reactionary artists, the ones who want to go back instead of progress forward on a material basis.
I think most novel genres are originally created by and for the working class, but heavy metal has the material constraint that it requires heavily distorted electric guitar, so its history tightly tracks the history of our ability to produce guitar amplifiers, and how affordable they are in various areas of the world at a given time. The bedroom studio revolution is directly responsible for djent among many other subgenres, and the big names in n the first generation of that group are mostly people of color, although their class character is more muddled.
I’d super love someone more knowledgeable about heavy guitar music in the periphery to share some analysis of that.
Fwiw, and I could be wrong about this, I’ve heard the origins of the heavily distorted sound comes from bands having to overvolt smaller amplifiers to try to match the sound of the PA systems some bigger bands were traveling with in the age before a venue could be counted on to have a decent PA system to plug into.
I’ve heard that before. I think there was a long period of experimentation that basically involved breaking amplifiers to see how they sounded as well. Slashing the cones, rubbing dirt on them, etc.
That’s so cool.
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Funeral home, mens formal wear, or local moving company all work too
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Small agricultural/car mechanic shops where i’m at
All these guys work at gourmet $20 burger joints now
But they’re not restaurants! They’re a gastropub, or even an eatery.
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it’s easy, you just have to remember that it’s PECTOPAH in russian…
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I spend my Putin bucks in the Pectopah.
This is William the bastard’s fault. The Fr*nch ruined English spelling.
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remember, you can’t have a restaurant without a taur
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you got a problem w that?
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Omg why are so many of those pictures unapologetically horny lmao
“Tell me about it.”Someone call the volcel police
“Do you know we have an armor division now? It’s on its way.”
The VOLCEL POLICE are on the scene! PLEASE KEEP YOUR VITAL ESSENCES TO YOURSELVES AT ALL TIMES.
نحن شرطة VolCel.بناءا على تعليمات الهيئة لترويج لألعاب الفيديو و النهي عن الجنس نرجوا الإبتعاد عن أي أفكار جنسية و الحفاظ على حيواناتكم المنويَّة حتى يوم الحساب. اتقوا الله، إنك لا تراه لكنه يراك.
“Do you know we have an armor division now? It’s on its way.”
THEY FLY NOW!
it’s fur affinity lol
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The VOLCEL POLICE are on the scene! PLEASE KEEP YOUR VITAL ESSENCES TO YOURSELVES AT ALL TIMES.
نحن شرطة VolCel.بناءا على تعليمات الهيئة لترويج لألعاب الفيديو و النهي عن الجنس نرجوا الإبتعاد عن أي أفكار جنسية و الحفاظ على حيواناتكم المنويَّة حتى يوم الحساب. اتقوا الله، إنك لا تراه لكنه يراك.
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They’re not restaurants anymore. They’re Gastropubs and Creameries with thirty dollar burgers (with “housemade aioli”) and six bucks for a scoop of (“organically-churned grass fed”) ice cream, it’s the worst food you’ve ever had, the cracker couple sitting next to you is removed and moaning about the blacks stealing from Walgreens underneath the BLM sign, the crackers on the other side are discussing their VC ghoul fake money bullshit, conspicuously noted 10% “mandate surcharge” to try and turn you against laws forcing small business tyrants to pay a semblance of a fair wage, those obnoxious fucking plastic stools, gluten-free Frankenstein disgusting dish, five dollar juice served in a decapitated jar that’s impossible to drink out of and spiked with alcohol because fuck you that’s why, “farm to table” (as opposed to food that materialized out of thin air), “locally grown” (it’s imported from Africa after paying the locals half-cents on the dollar), “this is not a dish, it’s an EXPERIENCE”, local craft artisan IPA (they just fired the workers for striking), “
vegetablesgreensmeatfleshdessertApre-meal”, bottomless mimosas,serverstreat delivery technician, everything is slathered in disgusting “truffle” oil,mashed potatoespotato pureéééé, here’s your bill better take out a loan to pay it, don’t forget the parking is $30 every 15 minutes.Thank you for dining at Chrysanthemum & Millefuckelwanker located in the thriving SoCaGoMaGooGooGaGa district.
You forgot about mentioning how it’s located in a highly gentrified area
Those places tend to be like a temple to whatever rich jackoff owns it, with pompous slogans and insincere epiphanies scribbled over the wallpaper, on the tables, even in the fucking restrooms.
I hate that shit so much.
The cool part is that all of these places taste the same and fries are extra 👍
imagine dragons survived and it’s doing worse shit than that
They’re on the Starfield soundtrack lol
this made me audibly laugh and beg “no, no, no”. thats so fucking funny jesus christ
:(
And why is their lead singer always so angry?
He’s Mormon
ah, the religious wing of the
Imagine dragging my balls across their faces.
I went to a department store with a large sortiment of music CDs recently and as it turns out, it seems their album is pretty unpopular, considering the stack was full.
that comment does me well. it does me well.
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horrible song lol, but he had a couple viral hits on tiktok a few years back as well that are less detestable (but still bad)
styles are always overrated in their prime, despised immediately after their prime, and then longed for wistfully 2+ decades later. pattern-noticer gang is weary and opening their bibles to ecclesiastes.
[loud sigh ] I was into Ecclesiastes before it was cool.
vanity of vanities…
I think this genre bugged me more than any other bad genre because I really liked the previous era of indie rock - early Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, The Unicorns, Stars, Final Fantasy/Owen Pallett, The Microphones, ahhh, I’m getting powerful nostalgia just listing them out. Not that all these bands sounded similar to each other, but there was this weirdo/folko/p4k-zone that they all occupied that I found really moving and relatable, I think cause most of the people making it were depressed and anxious or otherwise mentally ill like me.
When all this stomp/clap “indie” bullshit started it felt like they took music I love, stripped everything interesting from it, and gave it to the rich kids with no problems that were often CAUSING me mental illness. It felt like some cruel ironic punishment from Greek mythos.
I feel the exact same. I loved most of those names you listed, and my poor Sufjan banjo brain was not ready for the onslaught of assembly line indie that came barreling in after them.
Some of those original indie darlings are goddamn weird people, and they brought all their quirks into their music. There’s a very messy personal artistry you get with bands like The Microphones or Neutral Milk Hotel that is completely polished away in the generation of indie bands that exploded in the early 10’s.
I’m glad some of the earlier scene is alive still though. I saw Owen live this year and I can tell you he is still fucking killing it.
Nana Grizol inherited the NMH brass section, and they really are the most precious band in existence and I will buy every shirt sticker and button they ever put out.
Wait, is it the same musicians?
Just the horns players but yeah.
Holy shit I love Stars they’re still one of my most listened bands, and if you don’t count listening to Hybrid Theory on repeat when I was 12, In Our Bedroom After the War is probably my most repeated album of all time.
Same. I’ve always thought of frightened rabbit in particular as more of a touchstone than they get credit for. A lot of their earlier stuff sounds like the groundwork for this fake ass bullshit that came after. Shame, because they were actually really good.
Itt: people realizing that they are entering the “this generation of music sucks” phase of their lives
“this generation of music sucks”
I hated hair metal in the 80s when I was supposed to be really into it
Let’s be real: it was pretty fucking terrible.
I felt only vindication when I found out how many hair metal bands were full of kiddie creepers to match the lyrics of their songs.
nah-uh
2011-2015 Was pretty awful when it came to music ngl.
Nowadays there’s some decent stuff coming out, but maybe the difference lies in me being a kid who was forced to listen to top 40 Radio when riding the car with my parents vs being an album listener nowadays.
But I suppose the “hey let’s party and have fun!” era was particularly grating to my ears, considering I lived in Italy during the crisis era German plunder of southern Europe.
That’s crazy talk.
Peak pysch rock revival era.
Am well into middle age and 2011-2015 there was some amazing music. Every era has stuff you’ll find annoying and stuff you’ll find brilliant.
The thing about the “this generation of music sucks” phase is that we’re the first generation to enter it since ClearChannel media monopolized the airwaves and pushed out any music that isn’t guaranteed to be profitable.
bro i never left, i still listen to Lo Boob Oscillator and pester people with comments about how brilliant its krautrock-influenced motorik interlude is, i never even watched high fidelity
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This stuff was fine in small doses but it was everywhere and I got so tired of it so quickly. Ever since artists stopped being able to make money off album sales there’s been a race to the bottom to make bland, palatable music so you can license it out to be in commercials, which means it just gets oversaturated in like a month.
Excuse the reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/CommercialsIHate/comments/108by93/skyrizi_nothing_is_everything_garbage/
But the makers of this drug have put out dozens of commercials all using the same song that SATURATES daytime news.
I definitely remember a bunch of car commercials with the “whoooaaaaaaaa HEY” stompy shit
I fucking love capitalism! It makes sure music maintains its soul
Demolition Man Radio
I hated it when it came out but I’ve been going back to it recently.
The older you get the more you have nostalgia for different times. You don’t only have nostalgia for your childhood. You’ll have it for your teenage years, college, your 20s, etc. This music was big when I was in college so that’s what it reminds me of.
I concede that it has nothing to do with the quality of the music.
I concede that it has nothing to do with the quality of the music.
You’re better than the vast majority, who confuse nostalgia with quality all the time.
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The older you get the more you have nostalgia for different times. You don’t only have nostalgia for your childhood. You’ll have it for your teenage years, college, your 20s, etc. This music was big when I was in college so that’s what it reminds me of.
The real sign that you’re old is when you have nostalgia about that time when you have nostalgia.
I definitely went through a period where I liked some of that music, but I can’t stand to listen to any of it now. Probably the fastest 180 I’ve ever had towards an entire genre of music.
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You have to hand it to the guy — he’s managed to make being the banjo player in Mumford & Sons the second-most embarrassing thing about him.
— Article, Ex-Mumford & Sons Banjoist Becomes Conservative Blogger, Somehow Contributing Even Less to Society
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Fascist banjoists are fucking weird to me. There’s a complicated, racist history to this black instrument that it’s a shock someone can harbor such attitudes.
I used to like Mumford and Sons songs until I found out they were British. Was like finding out Santa isn’t real.
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I mean I always knew they weren’t actually from the American countryside and it was just a costume. I always knew it was, but I did have the illusion ruined by someone else in school tho
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Mate, I’m still trying to process learning Creedence Clearwater were from C*lifornia
Northern Cali has plenty of legitimate hick spots, forgivable
No it doesn’t:
“Born on the Bayou”, “Cotton fields”, “Green River”, etc. All those songs cosplaying as southerners for what???
They sound great but why the fuck would you pretend to be from 2000 km away
I did not know that, but I feel relieved to have critiqued their music years ago when someone played it. Felt like they would be open to right wing, rightist popular, national focused content with some sprinkles of misogyny.
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Fun fact - the producer of the new Depeche Mode album said this in an interview a couple of months ago:
“Well, the one I wish I’d never done was that fucking Mumford record [2015’s ‘Wilder Mind’]! […] “I don’t know why I did that. It paid for my house but it’s the record I regret doing.”
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Lumineers “Ho Hey,” the ultimate song in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoSe_KAQEr8
imagine a car commercial
IVE BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BEEED
THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE
Everyone’s corny wedding pictures for over a decade now.
lol i was thinking about doing a halloween costume based around exposed suspenders, flop undercut, beard, and full sleeve tattoos. because that is 1000% NOT my look, but i could affect it quickly for maybe $20 in materials. it’s sort of my thing to wear a costume that is obviously a costume, but also has like a dozen answers to “what are you dressed as?” and let people guess.
last year i wore a track suit, a flat cap. dyed my facial hair, and had a bunch of fake tattoos on my face, fingers, hands and neck. funniest guess was “post malone”.
i got the idea one year because i dressed up as “anti fascist santa” and the libs always guessed i was “some kind of terrorist”, which still makes me laugh.
anti fascist santa
Not Santifa?
with the people i know, that joke would absolutely slay in my mind but basically everyone would think it was some knock off instant coffee brand.
sleigh in your mind
“anti fascist santa”
half the presents are snacks and water bottles and the other half are molotovs
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Rich people should be identified and shunned when they create music
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they’re all rich unless they’re some sort of local novelty noise punk band barely scraping by through dive bar performances. or alternatively, an exception
Fuck it dude I’m saying it
Some white people make good music
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uuhh ??
lmao he’s joking
but frankly we’re like one more imagine dragons away from white people having their music privileges taken forever
I’m sure he is…
okay, good? i’d be worried about your reading comprehension if you weren’t, since it’s pretty obvious.
Deleted cuz it did kinda suck lol. Will admit it, I thought longer about it an just only know pop music from the west
This is incoherent.
Lmao this is delusional.
There’s plenty of local scenes and there’s plenty of people that do it for fun or passion (actually the majority) and some of those are very lucky to cut thru the line of nepo-babies.Yeah I’ll tak the L, shitty take. Was making a classic mistake of hating capitalism but conflating it with western culture. There’s good and I was in a pissy mood and forgot. Good crit
No worries
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BLAME IT ON MY A.D.D.!
WAKING UP
TO ASH AND DUST
I WIPE MY ASS
AND SLAP MUH NUTS
That obnoxious hair-beard combo survived for longer.
I absolutely hate the buzzed on the sides and longer on top fad.
It looks ridiculous the way the fedora and trenchcoat and cargo shorts thing did yet this time around it’s more socially acceptable so it’s fucking everywhere and practically standard issue for Proud Boy fascists, too.
The solution is obviously to go bald, so you can’t have that hairstyle at all
